DGB 2.0: Ready for a big encore at Missouri

Heralded receiver hungry for more after strong 2012 finish

Aug. 22, 2013

Missouri wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham watches from the sidelines during the team's first NCAA college football practice of the season Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) / AP

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Pete Scantlebury

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The DGB story

The next chapter

Began fall camp as No. 2 on the depth chart at the X-receiver position, but has risen to the No. 1 spot. … Also has been working on the punt-block team in fall practice. … Was the standout in one of the big spring scrimmages, with eight catches for 135 yards – including a 50-yard touchdown. … He’s on the preseason watch list for the Biletnikoff Award for the nation’s top wide receiver.

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COLUMBIA — If one play from 2012 hinted at Dorial Green-Beckham’s potential, it came with less than a minute to go in Knoxville, Tenn.

It wasn’t the result of the play. What showed that Green-Beckham was close to taking the next step in his development occurred moments before the snap.

With Missouri at Tennessee’s 25-yard line, the Tigers faced a fourth-and-12 and trailied 28-21. It was that moment when Green-Beckham shouted at quarterback James Franklin, motioning with his hands to get his attention. The freshman sensed that Tennessee’s defense rolled to Franklin’s right whenever the quarterback began to scramble.

“I told him I was going to run my route and shoot right up to the end of the end zone and just sit there and wait for him,” Green-Beckham said. “As soon as I turned around, he looked at me, he threw it and I just had to make the play.”

The touchdown tied the game in Missouri’s eventual four-overtime victory. It also marked the former five-star recruit’s transition from big-time prospect to actual college playmaker.

Nine months later, Green-Beckham prepares for his sophomore year at Missouri. The spotlight is not as bright a year later, when the Hillcrest High School star arrived in Columbia with lofty expectations after his well-documented recruitment.

Despite a selection to the Biletnikoff Award watch list, Green-Beckham has benefited from a quarterback battle that’s drawn most of the attention. Last Thursday, coach Gary Pinkel named his starting quarterback.

Franklin once again begins the season as Missouri’s starter, despite an injury-riddled 2012 season in which he missed three games and parts of three more.

Although Green-Beckham said it didn’t matter to him who won the job, his numbers in the spring proved otherwise.

Mainly working with Franklin on the first-team offense, he caught 18 passes over three scrimmages for 266 yards and two touchdowns. Both scores came on throws by Franklin.

Those numbers trailed off in the first two August scrimmages.

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Green-Beckham caught three passes for 37 yards, but he had to get comfortable with a new position. The staff moved Green-Beckham from an inside receiver to the outside, where he resides as the top X-receiver on Missouri’s depth chart. He also is working as an edge rusher in Missouri’s punt-block formation.

Even with new responsibilities and a new coach at his position, Green-Beckham continues to show his maturation.

“From the spring to the fall, he’s a really different person,” Missouri assistant Pat Washington said.

Missouri hired Washington, a Southeastern Conference veteran, to fill the void at receivers coach after Andy Hill moved to quarterbacks coach this past winter.

“The way I’m asking him to do things, learning the system, basically moving him to a different position, all this was new to him,” Washington said. “He had to learn the system, gain his confidence back, get a relationship with a new coach. Spring to now, it’s a total difference.”

A year ago, Green-Beckham learned that he couldn’t simply rely on his speed.

He said he began to get more physical in his routes, using his 6-foot-6, 227-pound frame to out-muscle cornerbacks.

The difference showed after a one-game suspension, the result of a marijuana-related arrest. (He later pleaded guilty to trespassing and paid a small fine). He finished the season by catching 21 passes for 267 yards and four touchdowns over the last five games. He said the expectations affected him early in the year.

“Yeah, it was a lot of pressure,” Green-Beckham said. “Just being here, having everyone behind you, being that Missouri kid, coming here to play for the University of Missouri, that’s big for everyone in Missouri.”

That’s no longer the case.

“Going into this year, I’m more comfortable,” Green-Beckham explained. “It’s a whole different ball game now. Last year, coming in, not knowing what was going on and adjusting, really. Now, I’m more adjusted to what I need to do on the field. I’ve picked up a lot of things going into camp and during the spring, too, that’s really when I got going.

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“Every time I step onto the field, I know exactly what I’m supposed to do.”

The narrative shifts to what he’ll do now. His coach wants to make him a focal point of the offense. Coach Gary Pinkel wouldn’t put an exact number on the attempts to Green-Beckham he would like to see.

“We’ve got to get the football to him,” Pinkel said last month at SEC media days. “He’s got to touch the ball. Got a lot of other players that can make plays, too, but he’s got to touch the football. ... The more he touches the football, the better team we’re going to be.”

When Green-Beckham is presented with that quote, he dissects it more academically than athletically.

One of Green-Beckham’s closest friends on the team is backup quarterback and fellow big-time recruit Maty Mauk. He said the two main changes in Green-Beckham are his ability to use his body to catch passes and the crispness in his routes.

“He’s not a sophomore,” Mauk said. “He’s playing like a senior and his leadership is really starting to come out. You can tell, in his eyes, that he wants to be the best and help our team get to where it should be.”